Jn 1, 1-18
«And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us»
Impressive prologue of John from which attention is drawn to two precious images for their paradoxical character: the darkness closing in on the Light and God camping among us. But what is most important for those of us who consider ourselves simple Christians is its end: «No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is in the Father’s bosom, he has made him known».
It is not reason that discovers or invents God, but rather that human beings seek Him because their nature needs it… and find Him because He comes out to meet them. For Christians, that place of encounter between God and man is Jesus. God manifests in Jesus, a man. In other words, in a human being, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christian sees God. Ruiz de Galarreta used to say that “the fundamental quirk of anyone who calls themselves a Christian is to believe that Jesus is the visibility of God without questioning his humanity.”
In Jesus we have known God, and not the judge, but Abba. Nor is he an inaccessible mystery, but a sower who scatters the seed of the Word continuously and encourages us in our journey through life. And this image of God that we have known in Jesus is the best news that human beings could receive.
Because we have discovered that God is for us Father, Word, and Wind: Father with whom we can count, Word that guides us in our whole life, and Wind that helps us walk.
“The Word” –says John– “was the true light that shines on every man”… Jesus is the lit lamp in the darkness that allows us to walk without stumbling; he is the wisdom of God incarnate. God is perfect wisdom and Jesus is the wisdom of God offered to human beings. It is the wisdom of living with meaning; of filling life with things that are worthwhile; of things that mark our path correctly. And we are not talking about saving the soul –if God is Abbá, the soul is already saved–, but about saving our life from banality, mediocrity, meaninglessness, emptiness, anguish… We are talking about receiving “a hundredfold now, and in the age to come eternal life.”
But for that, it is necessary to believe him, and it is also necessary to feel the need for his light. The sufficiency that we so often show, the confidence in our reason above the Word, a fruit of our enlightened culture, closes us off from the light and condemns us to darkness. The blind man of Jericho had everything to make Jesus notice him; he had faith and felt the need. If human beings insist on denying their blindness, their need for light, there is no remedy:
“If you were blind, you would have no sin, but because you say, ‘We see,’ your blindness remains.”
Miguel Ángel Munárriz Casajús
To read an article by José E. Galarreta on a similar topic, click here
English version translated with AI